Volleyball Headline

Monday August 12, 2013Gator Volleyball to Introduce Innovative Technology at Verizon Fan Day

GAINESVILLE,
Fla. -- It’s one thing to be wowed at the sheer power and athleticism of a
volleyball player stepping and soaring into a wicked kill during a Florida
match.

But
it would be another experience to know precisely how high she skied along the
way.

Welcome
to Verizon Fan Day.

The
UF volleyball team will introduce an innovative and scientific system during
its first public scrimmage Saturday at the O’Connell Center. It’s called VERT
(as in “vertical”) and it’s the brainstorm of UF graduate Martin Matak, who
armed with a marketing degree and minor in astrophysics invented an instrument
that measures an athlete’s vertical jump in real time and records the
data.

Though
marketed as a device to assist health staffs in injury prevention and
rehabilitation by counting jumps and monitoring the ebbs and flows of vertical
heights, Gators coach Mary Wise and her staff thought the VERT could provide a
unique interaction experience, with Fan Day the ideal forum to debut that
experience.

“Fans
in any sport can appreciate a good jump,” said Wise, whose entire roster will
be armed with a VERT device. “They may not realize how athletic that dig was,
but most people can appreciate seeing someone jump really high.”

And
with the VERT, they’ll know exactly how high.

The
Gators have used the VERT in practices during the preseason for a variety of
functions, including monitoring the number of jumps for players who have dealt
with lower body injuries. In the past, the training staff had those players on
jump budgets each practice.

“They
counted with hash tags and a post-it pad,” Wise said.

Enter
VERT, which non-intrusively attaches to the waistband and not only counts
jumps, but graphs each and thus delivers real-time calculations that would tell
the staff a player is jumping at 80 percent of her maximum -- a true,
quantitative figure -- halfway through practice.

Obviously,
she’s fatiguing. That’s invaluable data for trainers.

It
can work also for healthy athletes, who can use the data to analyze their
technique. Maybe a player's jumps are averaging around 23 inches, but then she
pops one on the VERT meter at just 17.

In
reviewing practice, maybe that VERT data suggests they were too close to the
net to get a decent runway on their approach. Or on a block attempt, maybe they
needed to load their knees more for a better launch.

The
numbers don’t lie.

And
fans love numbers.

So
imagine the “oohs” and “ahhs” if a fan base introduced to VERT sees a Gator
crush a kill and the number “31” lights up on the scoreboard.

“Or
better yet,” Wise smiled. “On their cell phone.”

Now,
take the next step. To another sport.

Imagine
a UF basketball player taking a feed on a fastbreak and throwing down a
slam-dunk against Kentucky -- and a “44” torches the screen.

“Which
would be awesome,” Wise said. “And don’t you think fans would love that? In a
time when we’re trying to get people in the seats, here’s a reason.”

Volleyball
gets the first crack.

“It’s
fascinating technology and I love that it’s a Gator who is behind it,” Wise
said. “He sees a benefit for the sport of volleyball and I think it has a huge
upside, too. We know how fortunate we are to be on the ground floor.”